About the Awards

ABOUT THE AWARDS

Now in its 9th year, the UK Customer Experience Awards has become the biggest CX event of its kind in the world.

Definition of Customer Experience

Customer experience results from the wide-ranging interaction between an organisation and its customer over the entire duration of their relationship. This experience is made up of the customer journey, the multiple touchpoints the customer interacts with, and the numerous channels and environments the customer encounters both online and offline throughout their experience.

The awards recognise those inspiring organisations who are delivering an outstanding customer experience.

Achieving an outstanding customer experience for every customer, every time, is a vision for many organisations now. The route to achieving this is a journey. The awards afford organisations to achieve recognition, reassurance and encouragement on their journey. The categories recognise excellence in a sector or in a specific discipline or the people in the organisation.

This year the awards are set to be bigger and better than ever. To be shortlisted or win at these awards is an incredible honour that identifies you as among the best!

The Unique Format of the Awards

The awards finals and ceremony take place on one day, on October 11th, 2018, at Wembley Stadium. During the evening the finalists will celebrate and be recognised for their outstanding achievements at a black-tie gala dinner in the Great Hall at Wembley Stadium.

Phenomenal Value

During the finals on October 11th up to 200 different presentations will be scored by the judges in what will be the largest gathering of CX best practice in one place, in history. Each of the judging rooms is set out for spectators and many of the presenters will open their sessions to others to watch and learn. If you are attending the awards ceremony it means you can also attend the finals and watch the presentations in the daytime. No other conference or event offers anywhere near this kind of value for money.

Who can enter the CXA?

The awards are specifically designed to welcome entries from all businesses, organisations and individuals who deliver an exceptional customer experience to their customers; whether that is your clients, partners, suppliers or employees. The awards encompass both B2B and B2C categories across every industry sector.

Can SMEs Win Against Big Business?

At Awards International we pride ourselves on our reputation for having the fairest process for deciding business awards winners. Our awards programmes are judged by a large panel of independent and impartial business professionals, who are passionate about their role and meet our stringent criteria. Our scoring criteria is endorsed by Cranfield School of Management, and all finalists present their entry live to the judges on the day of the finals. This means that every entrant whether an individual, SME, or large organisation has the same chance of impressing the judges and taking home the top spot on the day.

What kinds of initiatives can enter the CXA?

The judges want to hear from those who are excelling in customer experience and have shown a marked commercial improvement as a direct result of their initiative. The awards aim to celebrate diverse cross-sector enterprises by bringing together in one place, and in one day, the leading examples of great customer experience innovations. From the use of technology to improved staff training, we welcome examples of all initiatives in business and industry.

Changes to CXA for 2018

We have made a few changes to the awards this year to make the awards more rewarding and fun and on one or two areas where we have had some suggestions for improvement.

We have an all new entry form. The 9 questions for the sector, discipline and team categories have changed and been simplified. You can read about the changes here.

The Professional of the Year entry form has also been changed. The 9 questions above are still relevant, but now we have a 10th question asking for evidence about professional behaviours. Again you can read about the changes here.

We also have an online entry form for the awards this year. It is our aim to make the entry and scoring processes as simple as possible and as part of that we have made the entry form completely online. You will be able to prepare your entry from the document How Entries are Scored. Once you have made your nominations then you will be able to access the forms and work on them as many times as you wish up to and including the entry deadline.

As well as the changes above, we have added two new categories, Best Education and Best Health & Wellbeing. There has been a whole tide of activity in these sectors improving the customer experience.

KEY DATES

EARLY BIRD DEADLINE: 27th April 2018

ENTRY DEADLINE: 8th June 2018

FINALISTS ANNOUNCED: 22nd June 2018

AWARDS FINALS: 11th October 2018

VENUE: Wembley Stadium, London

WHY ENTER

Gain recognition and celebrate your hard work and achievements

Enhance your profile and promote your business to potential new customers

Boost your workplace morale and encourage further innovation

Grow your network and connect with other influential business leaders

Share your insight into best practice and learn from fellow professionals

Improve your business model with a benchmarked judge’s report

THE JOURNEY

You will be guided and supported throughout the awards journey by a dedicated awards consultant who is on hand to advise you on everything from the best categories to enter to how to write and present your entry. We also provide many free online resources including winner’s case studies and informative webinars, as well as helping you enhance your profile via our social media and online media partner the Customer Experience Magazine.

Step 1

Choose the best categories that showcase your customer experience initiatives

Step 2

Nominate your initiative and receive access to the Online Portal where you submit your entry form